History Film / TalesOfTerror

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The bartender who asks Montresor when his wife suddenly became so complacent. Only then did Montresor put two and two together...
* VictorianNovelDisease: Lenora reveals to her father that she is dying of a terminal illness, which explains why she came to be her father.

The film uses an anthology format, presenting three short sequences based on the following Poe tales: "Literature/{{Morella}}", "Literature/TheBlackCat" (which is combined with another Poe tale, "Literature/TheCaskOfAmontillado"), and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar". Each sequence is introduced via voiceover narration by Vincent Price, who also appears in all three narratives.

The film uses an anthology format, presenting three short sequences based on the following Poe tales: "Morella", "Literature/TheBlackCat" (which is combined with another Poe tale, "Literature/TheCaskOfAmontillado"), and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar". Each sequence is introduced via voiceover narration by Vincent Price, who also appears in all three narratives.

* AlliterativeTitle

* TheAlcoholic: In "The Black Cat", Montresor is a drunken sot who hasn't worked for 17 years and whose only concern is where the price of his next drink is coming from. Locke is implied to have spent the two decades since his wife died gloomily drinking himself into a stupor.

* TheAlcoholic: In "The Black Cat", Montressor is a drunken sot who hasn't worked for 17 years and whose only concern is where the price of his next drink is coming from. Locke is implied to have spent the two decades since his wife died gloomily drinking himself into a stupor.

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: In "The Black Cat", Montressor is not content with abusing his wife Annabelle, but also torments her pet cat, and would undoubtedly kill it if it every stayed still long enough for him to get his hands on it. As might be guessed from the title, the cat provides him with his karmic comeuppance.
* BuriedAlive: In "The Black Cat", Montressor shackles Fortunato and Annabelle to the wall of the cellar and the bricks them up alive.
* CobwebJungle: In "Morella", Lenore arrives back at her family home only to find the house deserted and covered in cobwebs: no one having cleaned it in 25 years.

* DomesticAbuse: In "The Black Cat", Montressor heaps verbal, physical and economic abuse on his poor wife Annabelle. It is little surprise he winds up murdering her.

* ExtremelyDustyHome: When Lenore returns to her family home in "Morella", she discovers all of the furnishings are buried under [[CobwebJungle cobwebs]] and a choking layer of dust.

* PossessingADeadBody: A variant occurs in "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" where M. Valdemar's soul is trapped in his own dead body. Carmichael's mesmerism captures soul Valdemar's soul at the moment of death. His body is dead and slowly putrefying, but his soul still resides within it, but is unable to cause it to act in any way. Eventually, Valdemar is able to summon up enough rage to be able to control the body long enough to kill Carmichael
* PrettyInMink: In "Morella", Lenore is wearing an ermine stole and muff when she arrives back at her family home.

* SeveredHeadSports: In "The Black Cat", Montressor has a nightmare where Annabelle and Fortunato rip his head off and then toss it back forth between themselves.
* SlippingAMickey: In "The Black Cat", Montressor knocks Fortunato out by drugging his sherry.
* SympatheticAdulterer: In "The Black Cat", Annabelle is married is married to the abusive, boorish drunkard Montressor who has not worked in 17 years. It is only her sewing work that keeps them in food, and she has to hide the cash to prevent him spending it it on booze. Small wonder she begins an affair with the aristocratic Fortunato when Montressor makes the mistake of introducing them.

* WineIsClassy: Played with in "The Black Cat". Fortunato is an aristocratic professional wine taster with an elaborate ritual for tasting whose ability to identify the chateau and vintage of a particular wine in a blind tasting is regarded with awe by the wine merchants. However, TheAlcoholic Montressor is able to do exactly the same thing just by guzzling a glass.

* RevengeMyopia: Morella returns from the grave to take vengeance upon her daughter and husband. Problem is, Morella died from overexertion at a party which ''she'' pressured Locke into throwing for her, despite his concerns for her health after the birth of Lenore: an even that'd happened ''months'' earlier, so hardly merited DeathByChildbirth status. Not that she'd have been justified blaming Lenore for her death, if she ''had'' expired from giving birth.

* BuriedAlive: In "The Black Cat", Montressor shackles Fortunato and Isabel to the wall of the cellar and the bricks them up alive.

* RevengeMyopia: Morella returns from the grave to take vengeance upon her daughter and husband. Problem is, Morella died from overexertion at a party which ''she'' pressured Locke into throwing for her, despite his concerns for her health after the birth of Lenore: an even that'd happened ''months'' earlier, so hardly merited DeathByChildbirth status. Not that she's have been justified blaming Lenore for her death, if she ''had'' expired from giving birth.

* SeveredHeadSports: In "The Black Cat", Montressor has a nightmare where Isabel and Fortunato rip his head off and then toss it back forth between themselves.

* RevengeMyopia: Morella returns from the grave to take vengeance upon her daughter and husband. Problem is, Morella died from overexertion at a party which ''she'' pressured Locke into throwing for her, despite his concerns for her health after the birth of Lenore: an even that'd happened ''months'' earlier, so hardly merited DyingInChildbirth status. Not that she's have been justified blaming Lenore for her death, if she ''had'' expired from giving birth.